New Dimensions In Assessment

Today I gave a couple of first graders opportunities to tell me about their art while I recorded their voices and filmed their art with my JVC digital camcorder. At this point, I am able to view the recordings as email clips, which means the images are grainy and low resolution. However, the audio is pretty good. It is amazing the ideas the kids come up with when they are speaking (or writing for that matter) about their art. One of my kids created a scribble drawing with a square darkened in the middle and he proceded to tell me "this was a matrix and this kid who entered the time portal (the square in the middle) could be sent back into the past or up into the future." Then, another child came up to me and said, Mr. Gaw! I want you to film me! So I obliged him and he got out his new drawing of a simply drawn rectangular face and body on a simple landscape. He proceeded to explain on camera that this was an "alien and that he lived on the moon under a rock and he jumped up high in the sky to scare people in a friendly way." I thought to myself, "Eureka!" The art making-creative thinking process, generated these incredible stories! This is something my TAB colleagues and I had allready known, however it was so nice to see this creative phenomenon come to full circle on video! I would have prefered to have them write first and then read their work to me as I videotaped the works, however, the spontanaeity of the answers and the interesting stories behind the works gave me hope that as we continue to video, the divergent thinking and art will become even more complex and rich with detail. We shall see. My hope now is that I can convert the video files with a higher resolution so the images are better. For now, I am happy with this new dimension in digital video assessment.

My new assessment tool is a digital camcorder. I have been interested in using mpg files with our electronic portfolio program for some time now. I believe my students will be extra motivated to write reflectively about their art work knowing their voices will be made audible on the video tape. We can also record puppet plays, narration, critical analysis and possibly do some simple stop action animation projects. We will see what new directions this tool will take us. Now, as soon as I become more familiar with the editing software, we will really begin to "go to town!" I have done some experiments linking a few files onto our PowerPoint portfolio platforms with great success. I am very excited about this new development. Maybe even connect an mpg file to this blog! We shall see!

Each time the boys pulled a new monoprint they rearranged and reset the yarn into another configuration, repeated the process and pulled another print. The boys were very excited by their creative discovery and eagerly signed their names to each image.  

A group of third grade boys were experimenting in the artroom today with a bucket full of wet painted grey yarn. I said, "Hey, what are you gonna do with that?" They said, "We don't know Mr. Gaw but it looks kind of cool." I said, "spread it out over one sheet of paper and then press another onto the top of it, pull a print and see what you get." They pulled three monoprints by the time they were done. With each print were squeals of delight as they had discovered on their own the "magic" of printmaking! 

I believe "Count Olaf" was inspired by the "Series of Unfortunate Events" movie. "Johnny" is a gifted draughtsman and specializes in replicating from observation and memorized images. This drawing Johnny did from memory. 

The "Dragon Mural" has become one of the big attractions in the art room lately. Jimmy Shockly (not his real name) asked me for a big piece of mural paper one day and sketched this dragon head from a smaller drawing. After an initial inspired burst of energy and flurry of drawing and painting activity, Jimmy has been slowly building the work up. We have been discussing painting technique, during this time. We have talked about space, transparency, pattern under painting and over painting during this creative experience. I can't wait to see it in it's final stage. Not bad for a 5th grader working with his own ideas about painting.....cg 

Dragon Mural 

"The Next Big Thing"

Clark and I presented at the IAEA State Conference last Friday. We had a nice group of interested teachers check in with us (20) and listen to our story of how we got to where we are today with our rationale, transition and current program with choice based art education. This was the 5th time Clark and I have done a presentation for either the state or national art education associations but this is the first time our audience members kept us speaking an hour and a half after we were supposed to end our presentation. They were very interested in everything we had to say....and had a lot of questions about our centers, assessment, facilitating and developing creative thinkers, classroom management and everything else we had to say about child centered, choice based art education. Clark and I each created a PowerPoint presentation and then on Thursday before our presentation, we worked everything out, combining the two presentations ...On Friday, Nov. 5th at 4:00PM, we delivered the presentation. I remember our audience was very enthusiastic and several left interested in beginning choice programs of their own. We finished up at around 6:30 PM. I was delighted the choice concept was recieved so positively by the art teachers who came to hear what we had to say about our new programs....Near the end of our talk, one of the teachers came up to me and said, I do a lot of DBAE, but is this the "next big thing?" I thought, "this is bigger than DBAE"....I said to her, "I don't know," but I thought to myself...It very well could be, ...and I think it should be, not just for art education but to a certain degree, for all subject areas....I think about John Dewey's works, "The Child and the Curriculum" and "Democracy And Education" Dewey speaks at great length about adults classifying knowledge, facts and learning away from their original place and away from relevancy to student's life and experience. With choice based art, we can connect directly to student experience....this is what makes this program so potent....and this is why I am so excited...Check back again....cg

Fourth grader Scott's reflection in his electronic portfolio on his mural making process. 

Third grader Sarah's multimedia landscape. 

Student Directed Halloween Mural 

Mural Artists At Work 

Time To Assess Where We Are Going.....

I have been thinking about assessment since day one. One of the things we do here that I believe is unique to our program is electronic portfolios. Most days I have been walking around the room near the end of each class time with my digital camera and I have been taking pictures of student art and students engaged in art making activities. I take the image files and transfer them to folders on our LAN for our kids to access. Over time, the folders fill up with all kinds of images so kids have a lot of images to reflect on. I have the kids insert their images onto a PowerPoint file that serves as their electronic portfolio. Then, I ask them to write reflectivly on their art and experience. So far, we have had our 5th and 4th graders work with their electronic portfolios and I am quite pleased with the reflection aspect of the work. One of the things I also need to do is ask the right questions. I was talking with Clark about assessment the other day and had a dialectic of sorts on the Teaching Artistic Behavior list serve about essential questions. The question we came up with was "What do artists do?" From this question we can spin other essential questions for more reflective thinking and writing. So, assessment from electronic portfolios and reflective writing is where we are headed. I think we are also going to use checklists, and insert those into portfolios. Speaking of reflection...I have been looking at the quality of the art we are generating and I am seeing something of a mixed bag. Some of the work is very complex, especially considering it wasn't my idea for them to work from. Other works are very simplistic. The other thought I have is so what? If they are the originator of the idea, and they take the work as far as it can go....then they will have begun to undertake the work of the artist. Real artists work from their own ideas, not someone elses. This issue is what got me interested in Choice Based Art Education in the first place. I still feel like I need to do more to facilitate the complexity of student art....I know there is a balance to work toward and from....We will press on.

Sculptures created with cardboard, tape and glue.  

3rd grade students begin constructing sculptures with cardboard, tape glue and scissors. 

Time To Work In Three Dimensions

Because of my concerns for storage space, I have held back somewhat on introducing 3-D art activities....I believe it is time to get moving in that direction. I can see it in the work they are producing...they are taking sheets of manila paper, glue and tape and constructing cones, cylinders, multiple chambered constructions, and other kinds of folded, origami like paper sculpture. I tell them they are creating "amazing inventions." Some of these inventions are flying machines, dishware, machines and weapons.......I have begun cutting bits of construction paper and preparing a "sculpture cart" similar to the "collage cart." I plan to stock it with string, construction paper, glue, scissors, tape and other miscellaneous materials. After viewing Clark's latest post, I concluded it is time to take the plunge into a 3-D adventure. This should be interesting....

Student working with collage at the mural center. 

"I am so proud of my art work!"

I am working with individual students in the room and I overhear comments from the rest of the kids that are very interesting. This morning, one of them says, "I am so proud of my art work!." That makes me very happy. I see them taking more ownership of their work. "This monster can attack two creatures at once!" "There is going to be a river behind this tree." "Look what I have made! This is a cool brown color....How did you make that?" As my friend and colleague Clark Fralick has observed, the students are engaged in lively discussions during their work time. I find that this year, my students are looking forward to their art classes more than ever. I try to let the work originate from within without too much teacher prompting.....I want an organic approach. The 5 min. lesson I am working with today with my 3rd graders is one on how artists spend time re-working an art work. I show them an example that has been around for a while, and I tell them I am "touching up" this work. I talked about combining drawing, painting, collage, ink and other materials to give the work a "dynamic" look. Most have considered the lesson. Others continue making new art. Will check back later....

Primary level students continue exploration of the mural center with liquid tempera. 

Intermediate level students at work on a variety of stations. Island table at upper left doubles as drawing center and demonstration station. Computer generated drawing and work inspired by drawing books at upper half of jpg. Students on right side working with collage, watercolor, india ink and other drawing materials.